Dreamin' Storms
by 9thDimen
Summary: What happens when an asshole like Baird meets a humorous woman named Quinn? Rating will change in the future...Will be perverted in ways I cannot explain...yet. Takes place between Gears of War 2 and 3. Bairdxoc MarcusxAnya later/building up
1. Chapter 1 Gamma Squad

_Dreaming Storms_

Chapter 1 Gamma Squad

"All of this is a big load of shit. This world is a piece of shit, and this fucking silverback is a load of SHIT!" Quinn yelled sarcastically as she repeatedly hit her beaten down over used wrench against the knee of the silverback she was recently driving before it broke down on her. Bullets whizzed past her as she tried desperately to ignore them. Sweat beads began to accumulate on her head as she watched the knee joint slowly fall back into place with every hit.

"Maybe if you weren't messing with them earlier then you wouldn't be having this problem!" Her brother Dale yelled over his shoulder as he skillfully defended Quinn from the incoming gunfire.

She flipped him off. Dale rolled his eyes as he continued to fire. She wacked it one last time and the knee joint finally fell back into place. She smiled wickedly to herself. "I'm a genius," She declared.

Her com beeped to life, "Repeatedly hitting the knee joint and somehow fixing it doesn't make you a genius. It makes you lucky!" Her brother began to laugh and she ended up flipping him off again, but with a smile. She became serious again once a nearby tank exploded close enough to where she felt a light shockwave. She almost forgot she had to defend her base from the onslaught of Locusts hordes.

This was their base, their refuge away from the locus. And yet, here they are trying to take over. Quinn, her brother, and other COG soldiers took refuge here two years ago. There were only small scale attacks from scouting Locust, but this – this is an invasion. They wanted this land, but for what? Or maybe, just maybe, they are looking for something.

Quinn quickly jumped into her customized silverback and began to fire back with everything she had. "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, eat my bullets. I know you like it in the ass you little bastards!" She yelled with amusement as she continued to rain bullets on the enemy.

"Don't get to excited Quinn, you're gonna wear yourself out," her brother said over the com, but she could hear the smile in his voice. That's one thing she was always good at, making everyone around her laugh.

They both stood side by side as they defended their home. More and more Locusts crept out of their holes. Quinn took her grenades that she latched to the inside of the silverback and tried her best to throw them into the holes. With the incoming fire it was hard to aim and she only got about half before she ended up running out. But it was no use, more and more Locust holes broke through and Quinn could only watch as the grim situation began to progress uncontrollably.

"No, NO, AHHHHHH," A voice screamed over the com and Quinn flinched from the loud static that came afterwards.

"Roy, are you there?" Quinn yelled into her com knowing instantly who screamed. There was no response. "Ron, answer me now, if you don't I swear I'm goin' to find you and kick your sorry ass!" Quinn threatened but she knew that he wasn't going to answer. "Damn it!" she screamed.

She looked around her small base. She watched as gunfire ceased from the other side of their base and all she could do was watch. She shook her head and looked away. They're not going to survive this one.

This is it.

It was all over.

She remembered the promise she made to her squad. She told them if they stuck with her they wouldn't die. She was a genius after all, not in the comical sense either. She made a promise, and she damn well keep it, no matter what the cost was to her. She was going to keep her squad safe!

"Gamma squad, do you read me?" A ladies voice was heard over Quinn's com.

Quinn fired towards gas tanks she noticed some Locusts stood near. In a couple of shots the gas tanks exploded taking out four Locust. She smiled to herself but soon her confidence ceased when a Locust shot somehow hit the joint in the right knee of the silverback lodging it once more.

"Damn it," she yelled. She couldn't get out of the silverback again. There are four times as more Locust than there was before. She continued to fire as she finally answered the woman who was trying to speak to her. "Yes, this is the Gamma Squad leader Quinn, if you don't mind me askin'," she paused and grunted when Locusts grunts somehow made their way into their little enclosure. She watched as they started to swing their frag grenades, but she soon turned her fire onto them and they fell over making their frag grenades go off on them.

"IF YOU DON'T mind me askin', who the hell is this?" she yelled over the com.

The woman ignored her, "Delta squad is on their way to back you up Gamma Squad."

Quinn's heart leaped with hope after hearing those sweet, sweet words. "Are you serious?" She sounded a little too excited.

"Yes, if you can hold on for another ten minutes."

"No problem lady, we've been holding them off for more than two hours now."

There was more static heard in her com and a male voice began to speak sounding wounded and weak. "Q-Q-Quinn…"

"Roy?" Quinn stopped what she was doing and listened intently to her com.

"What the hell are you doing?" Dale yelled as he tried to cover her ass once again.

"Roy, are you there? Speak to me." There was more static then the line went dead. Quinn opened up the silverback and stepped out of it.

"What are you doing?" Dale yelled. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"Cover me!" Quinn ran like a bat out of hell towards the next cover. There was a grunt that didn't notice her move due to reloading and she quickly swung her legs over the cover and kicked the grunt in the face. She grabbed her shotgun and shot his head making his brain splatter everywhere. "Wicked," she smiled to herself. She loved what she does for a living now, at least, when it's going well for her team.

She finally noticed an opening towards their base and she took it the instant she saw it. She ran low with her lancer at her side. A grunt moved in front of her with his own stolen lancer and began to rev up the chainsaw. Once he lunged for her she countered his attack with her own chainsaw. She pushed with all her might, sparks flying everywhere, but soon her strength began to overwhelm the grunt and he began to grow weaker. She pushed harder and the chainsaw was only inches away from his face. She reached over with her foot and tripped the grunt making him fall back and her chainsaw began to dig into his neck, Locust blood spraying all over her.

She began to run towards the door that leads to the base. She shot down a couple more grunts on her way and once she made it she looked back towards her brother. He was holding his ground with ease. She knew that he was going to make it another ten minutes on his own so she continued on into the base.

Thankfully, there are only a couple of grunts she had to take care of inside. She made her way through taking down every Locust in her path until she made it to the other side of the base. There were Locust everywhere and she was right behind them. They are shooting at a single crate as it began to grow smaller with every gunshot. She could see someone reach their gun out and blindly shoot at the Locust. He was the only one on this side fighting the Locust horde.

"Darius, is that you?" she asked over her com as she ducked behind a crate so the Locusts won't noticed her yet and began to reload her lancer.

"Yes, dear," a smoked damaged lung voice said over the com, he tried to sound sarcastic but failed miserably due to the constant fire of Locust guns.

"How is Roy?"

"Not good he's bleeding really bad…" he cut off as he began to return fire once more. When his fire ceased, he continued, "I don't think he's going to make it but I can't know for sure since I haven't had a damn second to check how serious his injuries are."

Quinn shook her head but said no more. No one in her squad was going to die, not here, not ever. Not while she's in charge.

"Don't do it Quinn," Darius said knowing already what she had planned. "It's not worth your life, I'm old, Roy's old, we've lived our lives." He began to chuckle.

"Shut up jackass, you're not going to die today." Was all Quinn said before she shot out of cover and began to fire at the backs of Locusts. The first ten didn't realize where she was at so she took them down with no problem. But soon they began to turn and fire back towards her.

Darius rolled out of cover when all fire was aimed towards Quinn and not at him anymore. They are making progress and slowly taking Locusts grunts out one by one.

"Yeah!" Quinn yelled as she saw their numbers began to dwindle. "We might win this after all."

Until she heard several Locusts say, "Boom."

"BOOMERS!" Darius yelled as he took cover.

Quinn quickly took cover as well but she didn't have any idea where they are at. At least, until a missile exploded into the side of her cover barely missing her. They are directly to the right of her and aiming their guns towards her once more.

"Shit!" Was all she could say when they fired. Two missiles came towards her and everything seemed to move in slow motion. She noticed in the corner of her eyes Darius slowly standing up and running towards her, ignoring the Locusts that are shooting at him. His eyes fixed onto hers. She blinked and slowly looked back towards the boomers. Their missiles only inches away. She stepped to the side, her body soon following. Her back began to roll as she desperately tried to barrel roll out of the way of the missiles. She could see behind her one explodes only inches away from her making her propel forward and making her barely miss the second missile. Everything was back to normal speed once her head hit the nearby wall.

She shook her head and gritted her teeth together. She heard the boomers say boom again and she knew they are going to fire once more. She quickly got up and took cover behind a large crate.

"Are you okay?" Darius asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I fucking hate boomers."

"You don't have to tell me twice."

Dale decided to join in on the conversation, "What happened?"

"Just a couple of boomers I didn't notice until the last damn minute," Quinn quickly said as she grabbed her shotgun and began to shoot at the boomers. "Where the hell is Delta squad?"

"Here," a gruff voice Quinn didn't recognize said over the com. "Sorry we're late, we were held up at the gate."

"And we are here to kick some Locusts ass, baby!" another more familiar voice said.

"Holy shit, is that the Cole Train?" Quinn asked her voice raising an extra octave.

"…Quinn?" Cole said. "I thought you were dead. How the hell did you get out of…"

Quinn cut him off, "We'll reminisce once we are done drilling out the Locusts. Sound good?"

"You know it baby! Where you at?"

"On the south side, I'm here with Darius. We have three boomers and about fifty grunts holding us down."

The other gruffer voice began to speak again, "Do you know why they are here?"

"I really do not have any idea. Maybe they want to dig another base here, but that is my only guess."

"Have you seen the queen?"

"No."

"Then I doubt that is what they are planning."

Quinn couldn't say anything more. The boomers are moving in and every time she tries to shoot at them a grub would get in her way only wasting her bullets on them. All she had left was a stupid snub pistol.

"Where did my long shot go?" She asked herself as she thought back to when she was working on her silverback and put all of her guns away in the gunnery. She stole the guns she has now from the enemy. She also only has her breast plate gear on. That was the only thing that was near her when they were first attacked, and it's not even a women's breast plate. She shifted nervously in her spot.

The boomer said boom again and Quinn winced when a shot hit the back of her cover and debris sprayed around her making her blind for a couple of seconds.

"WHOOO," Cole yelled as he leaped over a crate and actually charged at one of the boomers.

Once Quinn saw him she shot upright in her spot with a big smile on her face.

"The Cole Train is back in business," she yelled as she watched him take the boomer out with ease. He then used his lancers chainsaw on a grub that tried to sneak up from behind. Once they are both dead he ran quickly to her. Once he was close enough Quinn ran up the rest of the way and jumped up into his arms and gave him a hug of a lifetime.

"I can't believe it's you! How long has it been, ten years?" Quinn said as she squeezed his neck harder.

"Stop fondling each other and get back in the battle field," the same ruff voice said. Quinn looked over and saw a man with a bandanna on ducking behind the barrel Cole leaped over. He must be the leader because he began to bark orders to two other team members. They too ducked behind barrels and began to fire at the Locusts horde.

Cole carried Quinn back to the cover she was originally hiding behind. Cole smiled at her when he sat her down and then he began to speak into his com, "Hey Baird, you have some competition now."

"Oh yeah?" The person she suspected was Baird responded.

"Yeah, she, in my books, is way smarter than you when it comes to machines." Cole gloated about his long lost friend and Quinn couldn't help but smile.

Quinn also couldn't help but see how much older he looks. She could see new scars that riddled his cheeks and forehead and how… tired he looks. But, his personality was still the same and she was thankful for that.

"Sure, I highly doubt that. Women are only good for one thing and that one thing is to make the man a sandwich in the kitchen. The kitchen is where a woman belongs, not playing with machines."

"You shouldn't have said that," Darius chimed in already knowing the storm this Baird guy was brewing.

"I'm just saying it as I know it."

"Do you have any more Lancer ammo?" Quinn asked Cole as she got out her lancer and discarded the empty ammo case.

Cole handed her a couple of ammo cases and she began to reload. She stood up with the gun pressed tight against her right shoulder and she began to shoot with precision at the boomers head. In a matter of seconds, the head exploded and the body fell limp to the ground.

"Yep, you definitely pissed her off." Darius decided over the com.

Quinn shuffled from cover to cover as she made her way to the boomers dead body where she ended up picking up its gun and aimed for the last boomer.

"Boom, boom baby," she smiled and shot the missile at the disgruntled boomer. Body parts went flying everywhere and Quinn had to turn the other way so she wouldn't get blood in her eyes. "Now that's how it's done!" she laughed and began to reload and shoot off more missiles at the Locusts as they scurried around trying to find cover away from her.

"She's crazy, but in the good way," Cole said to one of his squad members.

"She's certainly good, I'll give her that," said the one with a five o'clock shadow and dark brown hair.

"There retreating," Delta squad leader said as he stood up from his cover and walked over to Cole and his other squad member.

Quinn dropped the boomer's weapon but didn't pay any attention to Cole or his squad members. Her hand instinctively went up towards her com and she began to speak to her own squad members. "Dale, Darius, are you two alright?"

"Roger," Dale said. She could hear that he was still in the silverback as he was walking. "The last of them retreated, I would go after them but I, personally, don't feel like it."

"Lazy ass," Quinn said.

"I'm fine, but Roy…" Darius said. Quinn looked over towards him. He was still behind the crate he was originally at when she first found him. But he was crouched over someone who was wounded. She ran over towards them and once she reached them she kneeled next to her squad mate.

He had a gunshot wound on his leg and upper left shoulder, but he was still breathing. She looked up at Darius, his grey hair and eyes shining in the sunlight, and asked, "Is he going to be okay?"

Darius shrugged his shoulders and looked up at her, his wrinkles under his eyes moving as he spoke, "I don't see why not. No major arteries were hit and the bullet in his left shoulder didn't even come close to his heart."

Roy began to cough, "Try being in my position. This fucking hurts." Then he looked up at Quinn and winked. "Maybe if you give me mouth to mouth the pain will go away?"

Quinn laughed, "Getting hurt won't get you into my pants jackass."

Roy smiled but winced after doing so. "It's worth a shot, right?"

Quinn shook her head and stood up with a smile still present on her lips. She turned around to see Delta squad standing not too far away from them. She walked, or rather jogged over to Cole and jumped into his arms once more. Cole wasn't expecting a second hug as he began to stumble backwards when she did so, but still hugged her back all the same.

"Aw, look at the two love birds, isn't that just precious Dom?" Quinn recognized that voice being Baird's. She looked over at him to see the gear with blonde hair joking with the guy that had a five o'clock shadow.

She let go of Cole's neck and casually walked over to the two of them, a smile gracing her lips. "Baird right?" She asked when she was close enough.

"Uh – Yeah?" Her fist made contact with his face and he fell over on his ass as he grabbed his jaw in pain. "What the hell was that for?" he yelled at her as he quickly got up and began to advance on her.

She placed both hands on her hips and said sarcastically, "Think I still belong in the kitchen?"

* * *

><p><strong>(yes, I know very fast paced. I usually don't write this fast and my chapters are usually longer. My writing is a little off as well. I can do a whole lot better than this. But, I had to get this chapter off my chest. I've been wanting to write a Baird fanfic since gears of war 2 but never got around to it. The rating WILL change later on if I get far enough into the chapters, if you know what I'm saying ;)<strong>

**Since I'm new to the whole Gears of War genre I ask of you to please pay attention to detail of gears of war events. I might mix some up here and there, and yes, Gamma Squad was in… I think gears of war two for a split second. I don't know if they died in it or not, but if they didn't then I'll make this the squad that helped Delta squad out a bit. **

**Also, a thing you need to know about me is that I'm a big pervert. Yepperz, so my character will be a big pervert as well. And she isn't a bitch either. I'm going to make her really funny. She was only acting like this because she was in the heat of the battle.**

**One more thing, and I usually don't write this much at the end of the chapter but I want to say this now and not have to write it in other chapters. I get motivated to write if I get a lot of feedback. Also, if I get a lot of feedback the better and longer the chapters will be. This chapter is short for me and I usually make my first chapters really short to see if anyone will be interested. I will be making grammar changes later on to this chapter to make the writing quality better if I decide to continue this. Please review!**

**Still deciding what Quinn is going to look like. Any suggestions?)**


	2. Chapter 2 Parker's Heritage Collection

_Dreaming Storms_

Chapter 2 Parker's Heritage Collection, Oh My

"I didn't think I would ever see your beautiful ebony face again Cole," Quinn said as she began to walk backwards with Delta squad following her. Quinn told them that she had a computer room that helped track the movements of the Locust. One she was proud to say that she made all on her own. She was beginning to sound like a child showing her parents the noodle drawing she did for them.

Her slightly wavy dark chocolate long hair waved side to side behind in a loose ponytail she barely had time to put up before the mini invasion they somehow slipped by with minor injuries. Her bright unusually green eyes shined up at Cole as she spoke.

"So, how do you two know each other anyways?" Dom asked, curious in their _friendship _they are exhibiting.

"We were both at the same camp when I first joined the army after the Fortification Act," Cole said, a little remorse was heard in his voice.

Quinn turned back around away from them and placed both hands behind her head as she walked. "Of course, I was only there to train the new recruits." Then she suddenly began to laugh. "I joined the army on E-Day. I was only fifteen that day. But that was before the COG's were created."

"Wait," Baird said butting in. "Then that only makes you like – what, 29 right?"

"Yepperz!" Quinn said with a bounce in her step. "I was one of the youngest to join that day, and I was a girl! Kicked some ass that day too, at first, they didn't want me to join because of my age and, well, I was a tiny girl back then. But, I was the first ever to ride a Brumak, hijacked it when the grunt riding it wasn't paying attention to whatever was under it."

"No kidding," Dom said with praise. "I bet your commanding officer had a field day with that."

"Yeah, I began to walk back to our base with it. They freaked out soooo much," Quinn began to laugh again. "Took me about a half an hour to make them realize that it was me, which was also the first time I was shot."

Baird began to grumble something under his breath and Quinn turned sharply on her heel. "What did you say?" She glared at him.

"I didn't say anything!"

"Do you want a bruised eye with that bruised chin of yours? It will make a perfect matching pair." She taunted.

Cole laughed and patted her back, "I'm glad you haven't changed in the least bit."

"Same to you, but you do look like an old man now. Just to let you know." They both began to laugh as they started to walk back down the hallway with Cole's arm slung over her shoulder. Quinn was a very short woman, maybe about 5'3". So Cole's arm was huge against her shortness and small frame.

As they walk past different rooms, Quinn began to explain their little outpost they had, "This is the washroom. There's a stream not too far from here where we bring in freshwater. And this," she said pointing to the other side, "Leads to our rooms. We have two extra spare rooms with nothing in them, if you want to stay here for the day and recollect yourselves."

"It is growing dark out," Dom said as he thought how nice it would be to sleep inside. "Tomorrow we can head out and track down the Locust." There was a hint of hope in his voice as he spoke. When Marcus looked over at him he could almost see his eyes sparkle as he thought about a comfortable bed he wanted to sleep in so badly tonight.

"Maybe," Marcus said as he thought about their situation. "Let's first see where the Locusts are headed before we make any sleepover plans."

Quinn nodded and walked further down the hallway. At the end was the computer/navigation room.

When they first walked in Baird's eyes grew wide, "Holy shit, you built all of this from scratch?"

Quinn turned towards him and began to grin a wicked grin, "Don't have an orgasm over it. But yeah, I built all of this from scratch."

Baird grumbled some more but didn't respond back. That punch did still hurt from the last time.

The room was descent size crowded with computer monitors, some had cases, others are scatted about the room glowing as they worked their technological magic. There are also screens scattered all over the walls with different camera views of the forest, and some only showed graphs on them with bars that would occasionally jump up from zero to fifteen and then gradually would go back down to zero. Marcus walked up to one of the graphs. "What is this?"

"Oh," Quinn walked up next to him. "These graphs show the vibrations in the ground. I placed about fourteen different sensors in the ground, one mile apart from each other and they give me feedback if there's any sort of motion in the ground. It's a good way to know if the Locust are going to attack or where they are retreating too."

"Can you tell me in which direction they retreated?"

"Sure," she sat down in a seat in the corner and began to type on a computer. On the screen numbers began to pop up and Baird couldn't help himself but walk over and see how she was doing things.

"Why do you have these _sensors _only one mile apart? You could cover more ground if you have them about five miles apart?" Baird was trying to outsmart Quinn but she just smiled and shook her head.

"Yeah, I could do that if I didn't want accurate readings. I would get a reading in one direction of Locust movement and wouldn't know another four miles in which direction they will be taking. If they were moving towards us, I would have an easier time knowing how long it would take them and to prepare us for the invasion." She looked up at Baird, "Only a moron would make a mistake like that. And by the looks of you, you would be that moron."

"Okay lady, you are really starting to get on my nerves, you know that?" Baird shook his head and walked away from her.

Quinn smiled, "Yes, I know. Don't piss yourself over it, and from the smell that's radiating off of you, it looks like you already did."

Dom tried his best not to laugh but he ended up snorting as he tried to hold in his laugh. Quinn looked over at him with a smile. At least someone had a sense of humor.

"Okay, that's it!" Baird began to stomp over towards Quinn but Marcus stopped him.

"This isn't the time to fight, and Quinn, stop trying to pick a fight with Baird we are all on the same team, remember?"

Quinn shrugged her shoulders but didn't say anything.

"In which direction was the Locust heading towards," Marcus asked, still a little aggravated.

Quinn began to type more on her computer bring up files of past readings. "Looks like they are heading north, there's nothing out there except trees so it looks like they are not heading to another place to raid."

Dom began to speak this time, "Why do you guys do out here anyways?"

Quinn stood up from her seat and turned towards him crossing her arms, "We're one of the main trading routes, we're here to protect the cargo that comes through as well the people, sometimes we even help deliver the cargo to different outposts."

Dom turned towards Marcus with hope, "So, does that mean we can stay here for the night?"

Marcus sighed and gave into Dom's sparkling hopeful eyes, "Yeah, why not, just don't let me regret it later on." Even Marcus wanted a night where he doesn't have to worry about being attacked by the Locusts.

"Oh, come on, do we have too?" Baird said sounding like a whining child.

"Hey!" Quinn suddenly yelled startling everyone around her. "We also have whiskey!" She said as she began to skip out the door. "Tonight we are going to party!" She turned around before she left the room and looked at Baird. "And no Baird, I will not have drunk sex with you." She grinned.

"What! I would never ask you even if it meant to save the human race!" He yelled then turned toward his squad mates. "See, this is why I rather tinker with machines than woman."

"So, what you are saying is that you like to have sexual encounters with your machines?" Quinn laughed, "Man, that's rough man. I feel for you. Your penis must be covered in callus." Then she bounded out the door down the hallway and into a random door.

"That's it," Baird decided. "She dies in her sleep tonight."

"Enough Baird, Cole tell her to stop bothering Baird. We need to disgust our next step tonight anyways. Maybe she could help us along for the ride." Even though Marcus knew she was immature, he could also see great potential in the girl. After all, she can track the Locusts movement, something that COG's been trying to do for years and she's done it with scrap metal.

"No, no, no, no, no, she's not coming along with us," Baird tried to protest but Marcus turned to glare at him.

"If she's willing too, I will take all the help we can get." He said through gritted teeth. He was beginning to get very annoyed with Baird's childish whine.

"Whatever." Baird turned around and walked away from them. He had enough of this place. He needed some fresh air.

"He'll get over it," Cole said and walked off too. He was going to find Quinn and help her find the whiskey.

Dom turned towards Marcus, "Do you think she could be useful?"

"Yeah, look at what she built." He turned around and looked at her machines to examine them further. "Just imagine if we had this everywhere. This war would be a lot easier to fight if we knew where they are going to pop up next."

* * *

><p>Quinn walked into Roy's and Darius's room to see how Roy was doing. He was lying down on his bed with bandages over his head, chest, and his one hurt leg. When he looked up to see who was entering the room, his old Ebony face light up and a cocky smile was present on his face. "Hey hot stuff, what's shaken?"<p>

"Hey," she walked over to him and plopped next to him. "Where's your whiskey?"

"Why?" He sounded accusing.

"Hey," she put on her best pouting face. "We have guests."

He sighed and shook his head. She began to pout more and he finally gave in. "Fine, but you owe me."

"Thank you!" She stood up and walked over to his warn out dresser with a grin on her face.

"Maybe when you're drunk you can give me a visit tonight and your debt will be paid." He winked at her.

She stood back up with the whiskey in hand. "In your dreams," she winked back and walked out.

* * *

><p>Quinn told Cole that she was going to be in one of the bare rooms if he and whoever else wanted to join for a couple of drinks for the night.<p>

"Well, it depends, what kind of Whiskey do you have?" Cole asked.

"Parker's Heritage Collection, aged 20 years."

"Wooo, baby, now that's what I'm talking about!"

"I know, right? Hey Dom, are you in?"

Dom was sitting on his own thinking to himself as he rubbed his knife between his index finger and thumb. When he looked up at her he had a distant look in his eyes. "No, I'm fine."

She didn't push him. She knew that look in his eyes. Darius has the same look sometimes.

"Do you think Marcus will be in?"

"He'll have a couple of drinks but he won't get drunk. He gets jumpy at night. Baird will most likely get wasted though, haha." Cole laughed thinking back to an event in his past with Baird. "Oh yeah, before I forget, Marcus wanted me to tell you to lay off Baird, he wants to keep him in a good mood when we go into battle."

Quinn shrugged her shoulders, "Fine with me. If he didn't make a big deal about everything I said then I wouldn't pick on him. He has a very large stick up his ass."

"Yeah, then he takes it out in battle and begins to beat everyone with it." Cole and Quinn laughed and went off to go find wherever Baird ran off too.

Quinn knew she was being cruel to Baird, in more ways than one. With the war going on, this is how… this is how she…

When she stepped foot outside she instantly heard a loud cling of mettle hitting cement and a, "Uh, shit." It was coming from the garage. She casually walked over and peered inside to see Baird looking at _her _silverback. She saw him crouched over the knee joint that wasn't working right, and the knee cap was laying on the ground in front of him, which was what she suspected the clinging noise came from.

She stood there staring at him with her hands on her hips, a light smile gracing her lips which showed the light scar she had on the left side of her lip. She shook her head and began to quietly walk over to him. When she was close enough she slowly leaned over him and then suddenly, as quick as a cobra, she shot her head in front of his upside down and said, "Boo."

"Holy shiii," he jumped up and turned around quickly towards her.

She had a cocky smile on and her hands behind her head as she began to walk backwards. "Guess what?"

"What the hell is wrong with you? Do you have any idea what would have happen if I had a gun on me?" he yelled his hands flying everywhere.

Quinn just laughed, "That would have only made it funner if you did."

"You're crazy, damn stupid…funner isn't a word…stupid…" he began to grumble incoherent words in between words that she could understand. He began to walk past her not wanting to bother with her anymore.

When he almost walked past she sidestepped in front of him before he passed. "You didn't guess my guess what." She fake pouted again.

"Okay what? What could you possibly say to me now? No, wait, let me guess. You want me to go fuck my machines some more, right?" She tried to speak but he began to rant on again as he began to walk back and forth as he bitched. "Oh wait, I got it, you want to gloat about some mechanical wonder you made, right? Well, let me just tell you this. That silverback has a lot of flaws. Like for instance, that fucked up knee joint you have is so rusted, it's a wonder that it even moves?"

She waited patiently for him to stop talking. While he was ranting she crossed her arms and began to tap her foot. When he was done speaking she said, "Done?"

"Maybe," he said copying her posture without realizing it.

"All I came here to do was invite you to a drink that was on me. But, that's only if you want to, Cole's in." She smiled.

He shook his head, "Do you think I really want to get drunk with you after the shit you like to say about me for some reason I really do not know or really give a damn about?"

"Maybe if you weren't a jackass then I wouldn't even bother with you." He just simply shook his head. She closed her eyes and sighed. "I'm not going to say I'm sorry because that was way too funny, but you can at least join me and Cole for a drink." She began to smile her cocky smile, "And I promise not to make fun of you…or do anything that will embarrass you."

He shook his head then thought about it, "Depends on the drink."

"Parker's Heritage Collection, aged 20 years."

His eyes shot open, "Your shitten me?"

"Nope."

Baird arm flew up in the air in exasperation and began to pace again , then finally he said. "Fuck it, I'm in."

"Now that's what I like to hear."

Baird followed behind Quinn as they walked back inside and into the room where the sweet, sweet whiskey was held. Darius, Dale, and Cole are already in there with shot glasses.

"Hell yes," she said as she went and sat over next to her brother. "Let's get this long and most likely regretful night rolling along!" She said and took the first shot for the night.

Countless shots later Quinn's world was swimming.

"W-w-where did yyyou gets thoses scars anyways C-Cole?"

"Oh, this one?" Cole said being the less drunk one out of the five. He pointed to the small scar on his chin and Quinn nodded. "Just a damn wretch got me by surprise. It isn't as bad as it looks just some damn dirt got into it that made it infected."

Quinn laughed, "Yeah, I-I once had to fights fifties," she extended her hands out like you could measure out fifty wretches with your hands, and she was obviously over exaggerating the amount as well. "Offs with no ammo or even a fucking gun."

Dale began to laugh, "Last time it was one hundred, what happen to the other fifty?"

"Um… I don' rememmmber," she slurred. "Anyways, likes I wasss say-saying. I was mauled, look see." She wobbled to get up and took off her loose gear breast off and lifted up her shirt to show light scaring on her stomach and back.

"Yeah baby, that's my girl, haHA." Cole laughed.

"You should also see the scars on my ass then, they really ass rapped me there with their claws." She began to unbuckle her pants but Dale stopped her.

"No, no, no, no stripping tonight." He, too, was drunk, but unlike Quinn, he still knew what was right from wrong. Even though he does wonder if she still knows the difference when she's sober.

"Ah, party poooooooper," she plopped back down and crossed her arms.

"Aw, I like it when she strips, the funniest crap ever," Darius said as he laughed thinking back to the last time.

"Hell no," Baird said. He was lying down with his shot glass on his chest as he watched the ceiling. "I rather not be scarred fer wife."

Quinn laughed at his slurring. She fell over on her side holding her sides as she did so.

Then suddenly an alarm went off.

"Dale and Darius quickly got up and ran out of the room swearing as they did so.

Cole also stood up and looked around him widely. "What the hell is that?"

Quinn tried her best to get up, but when she had one foot flat on the ground she fell forward and onto her face. "Dammit," she said muffled from the ground.

"What the hell is going on?" Baird said as he too, struggled to get off the ground.

"I'll give you one guess," Quinn said as she attempted to get up again.

"You can't be serious!"

"I'm always serious when iits comes toes the Locustssss."

They were under attack, again. In the condition they are in, they won't stand a chance if it's another invasion.

* * *

><p><strong>(This was suppose to come out yesterday, but when I was writing this I got an extreme migraine and decided to lay off the writing for the night. You can probably tell where I ended for the night and where I picked up later on today. I dunno why, but I didn't really like how this one turned out. Doesn't seem gears of war like. Next chapter will be though! Obviously. <strong>

**This chapter was really just a filler chapter to get the story moving along. I didn't want to rush everything like I did in the first chapter. I really, really, really do hope I kept everyone in character. Please tell me if I didn't so I can change it up. Thanks, and don't forget, the more motivation I get the faster and longer the chapters come out. If I make the next chapter it's going to be slightly more serious and get things moving along for Baird and Quinn. Of course, I'm not going to rush it.) **


	3. Chapter 3 Fire

_Dreaming Storms_

Chapter 3 Fire

Quinn struggled down the hallway, the alarms giving her a headache as she passed them, she decided that once this was all over with she was going to remove more than half of them and bury them deep in the forest. Once she reached the navigation room she plopped down in her seat and began to type on her computer.

Marcus finally ran in and over to where she was sitting, the same aggravated look he had on before. "What is it, are we being attacked?"

She didn't respond but began to read through the numbers that popped onto her screen. "Oh, shit." Was all she could say before she got up a little too quickly and ended up falling to the side on her hip.

"What the hell is going on?" Marcus was growing extremely impatient.

"We have an hour before the first wave hits us," Quinn grumbled as she wobbled up onto her feet while holding onto one of the computer monitors for support. "They have us surrounded… but I, um… Know a way to, um…" she began to rub her temples trying to clear her mind of the intoxicating whiskey. That was really good whiskey she had to admit to herself. Where did Roy get that anyways…

Marcus cut off her train of thoughts, "Damn it, I should have known something like this would have happened." He began to walk away from Quinn with his lancer in hand. "I shouldn't have allowed my squad to intoxicate themselves. Damn it…" He kept on talking to himself as he walked out of the room to see who wasn't drunk enough to fight.

Quinn shook her head. She could dwindle down their numbers, some of the waves are about to walk into some homemade explosives she made awhile back. All she had to do was detonate them once they are over them. Usually, they don't attack again in the same night. What she's wondering is how they got this many Locusts gathered in such little time? She knew Dale and she took out hundreds with their silverbacks, but how in hell did they mobilize this many in so little time? And why?

Quinn shook her head once more. This isn't the time to wonder, but the time of action. She stood back up and wobbled back over to her computer. She watched with her cameras as they began to advance forward. She began to calculate how many there are, and how many waves there are going to be.

She counted six waves, the first wave she was going to let walk,… or burrow… whatever they do underground, since it will mostly be grunts. The second wave she'll set off three of her explosives once they are close enough, and so on and so forth. That will take out about half to three fourths of the next five waves.

Cole walked in and made his way to Quinn. "We are going to head out now… Marcus wants you to stay here since you're the most drunk out of us all."

Quinn nodded, she wasn't going to argue. Once she's done with her calculations she'll catch up to them. By that time she should be able to walk and run. Now she just hopes that her calculation will be precise when the Locusts horde arrives to the location of her explosives.

"Um, head towards three o'clock when you head out the door, that's where the first wave of Locusts are coming from. They won't attack the base if they hear/see you coming. The other waves I'll dwindle their size down to half or less."

"Oh no, I know that look."

She turned around to look at Cole, a light smile on her face. "What look.?"

"That serious look you get when you're about to do something badass, and most likely dangerous."

Quinn laughed, "You know me Cole, I live dangerous, and I don't know how to live any other way."

Cole laughed, "This time, don't catch your ass on fire like last time."

Quinn laughed as she remembered the first couple of times she tinkered with explosives and Cole just happened to walk in on her as one went off near her ass because she forgot about it when she strapped explosives to a dummy nearby. Thankfully, it was only low volume of explosives because not only her ass would have been on fire when it happened.

"Then I had to chase your fire ass across the field because you wouldn't stop running and screaming like a little banshee." Cole laughed.

Quinn laughed too, but soon became serious once again. She had her fun today, now they had actual problems and she couldn't fool around at a time like this. Afterwards, maybe, but not now. "You guys should head out, tell Baird if I'm not out there on time I'll tell him the coordinates of the next wave. Oh, and tell Darius that I want him to stay here to look after the base, and to look after Roy. I don't want to leave him here alone just in case some Locust slips past us."

Cole nodded and headed out. Quinn turned around to her computer again and began to watch the locust movements. She watched to see how many bombers, grunts, etc where in each group. How slow each one should be with the amount of Locust in each wave. She calculated how long it would take them to get to her explosives and how many she needed to explode and how long apart each explosion will be.

Half an hour has passed and with each passing minute Quinn began to sober up. She was glad that at least, she didn't drink till she dropped like most nights. She was an alcoholic after all.

Delta squad and her brother took out the first wave of Locust with ease and Quinn praised them for that. They are good, but she was better.

The calculations were complete. She stood up and walked out of the navigation room and down to her bedroom. She walked in to the familiar sight of hand grenades scattered all over the walls and some machines she tinkered with on her spare time, most were just sensors that she tried to enhance the frequency reading so she could separate them father apart than one mile, like Baird mentioned. Sitting at her desk was her warn out breast plate. It was a sight for sore eyes, especially after how she had to wear that damn man breast plate that was clearly too large for her.

Her breast plate was missing half of the bottom left part due to a boomer explosion going off right next to her when she wasn't looking. She was put in the hospital for over a week after that, but ever since then she held onto this gear. It saved her life more than once. She found her pants also lying on her bed where she lazily took it off this morning for some odd reason. Damn those late nights of drinking and not knowing what she was doing when she got up in the morning.

The pants were tight but gave her great flexible movements with a knee cap and shin armor hooked onto it. Nothing fancy, just the normal woman pants the army gave the woman when they first joined.

"I hope you know what you are doing?" Quinn heard Darius's voice from her door and she turned to look at him with a smile.

"When do I ever know what I'm doing?"

Darius smiled lightly, "Just don't get yourself killed, or have something burn your ass again. You know how I hate removing your bloody bandages off your ass."

"Why does everyone think all I ever do is burn my ass, Cole even said something today," she teased. But it was so, so true. It seemed most of the pain she ever endured in her life was centered on her buttocks.

Darius stepped out of Quinn's way once she began to walk out and into their little armory. There she grabbed frag grenades, a lancer, a oneshot, and a boltov pistol. When she began to walk out Darius stepped in front of her and grabbed her shoulders so he could look her in the eyes. "Just don't get yourself killed, promise me that kiddo?"

Quinn looked at him strangely than began to laugh, "Aw, is someone going to miss me when I leave, Isn't that sweet?"

Darius didn't laugh, he stayed serious. "I just have a bad feeling about this one, that's all."

Quinn just grinned her cocky grin, "Come on, it's me remember. I'm a bad ass fighting machine, everything always goes my way. And if it starts going the other way then I'll whine like a little baby till it's my way again."

Darius cracked a smile but let her go.

Once she made her way outside, she turned around to look back at her base. She, too, felt something was wrong, but she wasn't going to tell Darius that. Not after… enough. She had to get her head in the game. She could still feel the alcohol in her system so she had to keep her mind set on one goal and that as to defeat the Locust.

Dom took cover behind a tree when he saw a Grunt point its gun towards him when he was reloading. He heard the bark protest when it was pelted with bullets. Dom peered out of cover and took down the grunt with ease. That was the last of that wave. Dom ran back over to his squad as they began to reassemble themselves.

"Okay, now what?" Baird asked once he saw Dom join the group.

Cole began to speak in the com, "Quinn, where's the next wave coming from?"

"About four clicks to the east, this one has about ten boomers so proceed with caution."

"Tsh," Baird began to shake his head. "The only time she's serious is when we are in the heat of battle." Cole began to laugh and Baird glare at him. "What's so funny?"

"Wait, you'll see soon enough."

Marcus butted in this time, "I hope she isn't planning on meeting us out here. Okay, let's move out. The Locust are after the base for whatever reason and we have to make sure they don't make it there."

They all nodded and headed off east.

Quinn ran as fast as she could through the forest. So far, she didn't run into any random Locust yet and she began to feel lucky. She finally heard some gun fire and she knew she wasn't too far behind now. Another grin of hers showed on her face. Now, she had to decide if she was just going to slip in without anyone noticing, or, have a grand slam appearance.

The grand slam sounded more appealing for her.

"She wasn't kidding about their being ten boomers," Marcus yelled to whoever was near him as he ducked behind a rock when a boomer decided to fire at him.

"Quinn doesn't kid when it comes to things such as these," Dale said as he fired at a grunt.

Baird looked over towards the four boomers that stood next to each other as they scanned the area for their next target. He grabbed a frag grenade and began to twirl it, once he saw the best opportunity he took it and threw it to the middle of them. Two noticed right away and began to walk quickly away, once it went off only two were turned to shreds. The other two made it out alive. Baird swore and began to reload his gun. A shot ricochet near his head off the tree he was hiding behind and made him jam his gun when he was trying to reload it. He swore some more and began to hit the side of his gun trying his best to un-jam it.

A boomer realized where the grenade came from and began to make his way to Baird's position. Dom noticed and began to shoot at the boomer. There are so many trees around that most of his bullets ended up hitting the trees rather than the boomer itself and he was only a couple of inches away from Baird.

Finally, Baird un-jammed his gun and stood up to shoot again but found himsefl face to face with the boomers guns.

"Boom," it said. Dom began to yell Baird's name and started to run over towards him as fast as he could ignoring the gun fire around him.

Everything began to slow down for Baird. He heard Dom yell his name and he glanced over to see him running towards him. He could see the bullets whiz past him and Baird thought it was stupid of him to risk himself like that.

Baird knew his time has come.

At least, until something jumped down from the rock behind him and a loud bone crushing sound echoed through the forest of someone's foot meeting a certain Boomers face. The boomer feel backwards with Quinn's foot lodged into its head. The thing died instantly from its neck being snapped in from the force. Baird was so dumbfounded that he just stood there and looked at Quinn not believing what he just saw. Quinn killed a boomer with her foot?

Quinn turned quickly towards Baird with that cocky grin she always has on. Then she ran up to him grabbed his arm and pulled him back towards a boulder where she made him take cover.

"By the way," she said to him as she grabbed her lancer from her back. "You owe me big time, let's say breakfast tomorrow morning?" She teased. She stood up from cover and began to shoot at the un-expecting grunts and boomers. "Oh, and by the way, we should all probably move back here pretty soon. Where sitting on some very, very, very high explosives that are about to go off in about thirty seconds."

Marcus nodded and told everyone to fall back. Baird stood up and began to run back with Quinn following behind. He still didn't have anything to say about what just happened.

"Uh," Quinn said as she picked up the pace. "We need to run a little faster." She said once she caught up to Baird.

"How big is this explosion supposed to be?"

"Um… enough to take out a football field."

"Shit," he said then began to run faster.

The explosion was massive. Quinn and Baird flew forward from the shockwave but thankfully, neither of them got hurt.

"Wooohoooo," Quinn yelled when she picked herself up and looked behind her. Everything was in complete rubble, no Locust could be seen. "I am so awesome sometimes."

"Yeah, in almost getting us killed," Baird said as he dusted himself off of the rubble that ended up landing on him. "You are a fucking genius."

"I know right?" Quinn teased but she became serious once again once the rest of delta squad made their way over to where Baird and herself are standing. Her brother walked over and patted her on her back.

"Nice job, I didn't think it was going to be that big though, knocked me clean off my feet." He smiled.

"Now we need to head this way," she pointed the left of her. "There's another wave coming from that direction, but if we make it in time we can keep the entire Locusts wave in one spot over another explosive I have planted out there. Then we don't have to worry about the next wave because we should finish them all by then." Quinn smiled feeling accomplished.

"Sounds good to me," Dom said nodding his head.

Marcus nodded, "Lead the way."

She turned towards the left and began to run over to where the Locust are all gathered. They should be sending out the next wave after hearing that explosion, so they had to hurry. To no surprise they are exactly where she calculated them to be. Give or take a couple of feet.

Quinn was the first to fire. Everyone followed and ducked behind cover. "Where's the explosives planted at?" Marcus asked. He was ducked next to Quinn as he covered her while she reloaded.

"Right under where the Locust are at now."

"When are they going to go off?" There are hundreds of them. Why would they send hundreds of Locust to a small compound that gamma squad occupied?

"In exactly," she looked down at her wrist watch. "One minute."

"Good, because I doubt we have enough ammunition to last another five minutes."

Baird and Dale are on the other side of Quinn. Dale has a smile on his face and Baird… Well he still had the same old scowl he always has on. Baird looked over at Quinn as she continued to fire on the enemy. He simply shook his head and said, "She's truly out of her mind."

"No," Dale said. "It's how she copes."

"Copes?"

Dale shrugged, "Each person copes differently to this war, some try to forget it by drinking their problems away. Others join the COG's and fight with their problem. Quinn, likes to have fun."

"Uh… I still don't get it. So she's a bitch because that's the only way she can cope?"

Dale smiled, "She's only a bitch to you. She always looks for the hard ass or stick up their ass type of people and end up pissing them off with her immature comments making everyone else have a good laugh. In the end, they always end up liking her. She copes by making people laugh and just… well, having fun. Believe me, don't make a big deal about her comments and she'll end up stopping. Well, not stopping completely, but stopping with the embarrassing comments."

"Yeah, well, I highly doubt that I would ever get along with a girl like that. If it wasn't for Marcus I probably would have shot her by now."

Quinn looked back down at her watch and yelled, "Everyone lay flat on your stomachs, it's going off in five seconds."

Everyone followed her command, when the five seconds past nothing happened.

Quinn looked at her watch again. "Okay, maybe I missed…" before she could finish the sentence the bomb finally went off. Thankfully, they are all behind rocks and boulders as fire burned over the rocks. Quinn covered her ears with her hands. Once the fire ceased everyone dusted themselves off and stood up to look at Quinn's creation.

"Wooo, baby, they are all dead!" Cole yelled as he walked forward with both arms in the air. Then he turned around towards Quinn and picked her up for a huge.

When he let her go she began to rub her arms, "Still hurts like before too." They both laughed.

Before anything more could be said another explosion went off in the distance. "Was that another explosive you planted?" Dom asked.

"That came from the base," Dale said and began to run towards it.

"Oh no," Quinn whispered and ran after her brother.

She ran with all her might, each step felt longer than normal. She couldn't seem to move fast enough. Once she reached the site she stopped dead in her tracks. Cole almost ran into her but stopped before he knocked her over. Her base, her home, was on fire. The roof was completely gone and everything that was there base laid on the grown in nothing but rubble.

She ran forward, her brother who was a couple of feet in front of her grabbed her before she could jump in the fire looking for her squad members, her friends.

"Roy! Darius! No, this can't…NO!" She yelled and fell to her knees with her brother still holding tight in fear that she might try to run in the flames. Tears began to stream down her face as she looked at the sight before her. "They can still be alive in there, waiting for us to save them. Please let me go," she pleaded but didn't make any efforts to get away from her brothers grasp.

"Their dead," he whispered. She shook her head. He grabbed her shoulders and turned her to look at him in the eyes. "Their dead Quinn, don't risk your life over something that is not worth risking. They are dead." Tears threatened the corners of his eyes as well, but he wouldn't allow himself to cry. He had to stay strong for his big sister.

She shook her head again but tilted her head down towards the ground. "I promised them," she sobbed. "I promised them that I would keep them alive. I promised that if they stick with me they didn't have to worry about dying." Dale hugged her and let a couple of tears escape his eyes when she wasn't looking.

Cole walked over to them and kneeled down next to her, he didn't say anything he just patted her back to comfort her. He looked upon the base that the Locust set fire and he glared. "This damn war takes everything away from us."

Quinn slowly stopped crying. Once the sobs ceased she pulled herself away from her brothers' shoulder and began to wipe her eyes. The stood up with her lancer in hand and looked at her base. The base she worked so hard fortifying. Where all her mechanical work took place, hell even her silverbacks are destroyed. All she had left now was her brother and Cole. She looked at both of them and lightly smiled.

Right then she promised herself that she would do anything in her power to keep them safe. No matter what, they are going to survive this war.

"To bad for Roy," she lightly laughed as she wiped another tear away. "I was finally going to let him into my pants tonight. You know, he's been trying to get in them for the last three years."Everyone smiled, even Baird's lips twitched up into one.

Quinn looked up at Marcus, "So, what's next?"

* * *

><p><strong>(Oh me goshers! I updated in one days time? Okay, maybe a day and one hour but close enough. Thanks for all the reviews, favs, and alerts! Believe me, it inspires me to write more! I liked this chapter more than the other two, I think I'm going to keep Quinn at this pace with her witty remarks here and there. Of course, she's still going to be perverted mostly because I'm perverted as well, but not over doing it. This weekened I'm going to be focused on improving my first and second chapter grammar and spelling wise. And probably adding a little more details to some situation. Please tell me what you think! Reviews are what motivate me the most, and of course, I'm a review whore so you guys need to sustain my hunger for reviews!)<strong>


	4. Chapter 4 Polaroid Camera

Dreaming Storms

Chapter 4 Polaroid Camera

Once the fire died down, which took about three hours once a small storm hit later on that night, Quinn and Dale went scouting over their ruined base to find anything they could scrape. Quinn tried her best to keep her distance away from Roy's room but as she rummaged through dirt piles she listened intently to her surroundings. Hoping in some way, she would hear a cry for help.

She instantly went to her garage with Cole following right behind. Her garage roof was caved in and she knew that her silverback didn't make it. "Hey Cole, help me pick up this metal sheet?" She crouched down next to one of the garage door sheets that was blocking her way in getting in. Cole nodded his head and without hesitation he walked next to her and helped her pick up the rather heavy door. Once that was out of the way, Quinn looked into the small hole.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? The roof is caved in, might flatten you out if it finished the job," Cole said as he watched her hesitantly crawl in.

"I'll be fine." She ducked under a wooden plank and made her way into the collapsed building. She walked over to the corner where she began to rummage through the debris until she found a crate. "Yes," she said mostly to herself when she saw it was still intake. In there was a backpack. She hide it in there because… well, it meant a lot to her. Let's just leave it at that. She unzipped the backpack and began to rummage through the wrecked garage picking up anything that looked useful and not broken, which only consisted of a couple of tools that didn't require power.

Once she made her way back out Cole looked relieved and walked over to her to help her out. He offered his hand and she gladly took it as he helped her up. She dusted herself off only to find it useless because of the caked Locust blood she had on her which made the ash stick to her further.

"What you have in the bag?"

Quinn cracked a small smile, "Porno." Once Cole gave her a surprised look she smiled widened and said, "Just kidding, I grabbed a couple of tools that may be useful to us later on."

Marcus walked over to them. He went off to help Dale with whatever he wanted to grab. Dom and Baird went off to do whatever they want to do. Quinn could care less about them at this moment.

"You ready?" Marcus asked once he reached them. Quinn nodded her head and she followed him to meet with the rest of Delta squad. She could finally see Dale and the rest of them. Dale had a small satchel at his side that he found in his bedroom.

"Please tell me that something in that man purse of yours has Alcohol?" Quinn asked once she reached her brother. Dale stiffly smiled but didn't say anything. Unlike Quinn, he grieves over the loss of his comrades. Quinn pokes fun to forget.

"Oh great," Quinn said as she sunk her shoulders in with defeat. "How am I going to survive without any alcohol tonight? That's what makes me fall asleep."

"There's going to be no sleeping tonight, the sun is going to rise in about two hours," Marcus said as he began to walk off. "Let's move out to the next base. If we're lucky, we'll make it in three days."

Dom's shook his head, "And I was looking forward to sleeping in an actual bed tonight."

Dom, Quinn, and Dale began to follow Marcus. Cole turned around to see Baird kicking at a burned piece of wood. "You coming?" Cole asked.

"Yeah, yeah," he said then turned around and began to jog up to the rest of the group. Once Cole reached them too, Baird turned around to look at Quinn's and Dale's base one last time. To him, something didn't seem right. Why would the Locust blow up Quinn's base now when they had chances before to do so?

"So, why are you guys out here anyways?" Quinn asked as they began to walk the long walk through the forest.

"We were following the Locust movement before they hit your base," Marcus explained. "We did have a Centaur but the damned Locust destroyed in with a mine."

Quinn smiled, "And I beat Baird was the one driving and didn't notice it?"

"Why do you automatically think I was the one driving it?" Baird sneered.

"Because you were," Dom said making Quinn and Cole laugh.

"Never let the jackass drive the car, it's the number one rule," Quinn said.

"Why so?"

"Well, have you ever watched a horror movie? Never let the jackass or the ditzy blonde drive because they always crash the car."

"And you would be that ditzy blonde. You know they are usually one of the first ones to die," Baird said getting frustrated once more.

"No, I would be one of the surviving virgins," then she stopped and thought of what she just said. "Of course, you have to be a virgin to play that role. I'm far, very, very far from that. Actually, I would probably be the one that runs and falls with my boobs hanging out. So, I would be one of the first ones to die!" She began to fake pout.

Dom and Cole began to crack up. Baird just scuffed and Marcus shook his head but kept on walking. Dale just listened intently on the conversation not bothering to be part of it. Quinn looked over towards him and saw his face was straining. She looked away remembering what happened earlier that day.

Suddenly all of their comm.'s beeped to life, "Delta squad are you there… Marcus?"

Marcus responded, "What is it Anya?"

"Thank god you're there, I've been trying to reach you for a day now, there was radio interference on my side, but we finally just got it back up."

"Yeah well, if you're wonder if we are okay then yeah… we are."

Quinn could hear something in Marcus's voice when he was speaking to Anya. She walked over to Cole and whispered, "What's Anya to Marcus?"

"They two are a couple."

Quinn nodded, "Yeah, I can tell."

"Okay, Delta out," Marcus said and turned towards them. "We have different plans, there's a settlement near us that we can head too, and they are currently being attacked by the Locust. If we're lucky, they'll let us stay for the night if we successfully save them. They also have a couple of packhourses that we are going to borrow."

"You mean, if they let us," Dom said.

Marcus nodded and began the walk once more. The sun was finally beginning to rise and Quinn was the first to yawn. "Hey Marcus, do you think these are the same Locust that attacked my base?" Quinn asked sounding nonchalant about it. She waited patiently for his reply, but he didn't. That only confirmed her suspicion. She held her gun close to her chest and proceeded forward.

Dale watched her closely knowing all too well that she wanted revenge. He walked up next to her and whispered, "Don't do this to yourself again."

Quinn shook her head but didn't dare look at him. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Dale didn't say another word. He stuck close to Quinn as they began to jog slowly to the settlement that is under attack.

Gunfire could be heard and their pace quickened. They could see the gunshots in the air over the trees. "Not much further, quicken the pace." Marcus ordered. They began to run. Quinn began to take the lead as he pace began to quicken further than the rest with Dale following close behind. Once they burst through the last of the brush, Quinn began to sprint towards the Locust.

"What the hell are you doing?" Marcus yelled after her but she ignored him.

"Quinn!" Dale yelled as he sprinted after her, Cole, Marcus, Dom, and Baird following right behind.

"What the hell does she think she's doing?" Baird asked Cole when he ran up next to him. They took cover behind a rack of bricks. There was a wall made of steel blanks and whatever else the refugee living here could salvage from the area. There are multiple people standing on top of the wall shooting down at the Locust horde below them, which mostly consisted of Theron Guards, Boomers, (which always seem to be everywhere), two Reavers, and Drones.

Cole shook her head, "I've only seen her act like once before."

"Oh yeah?" Baird began to fire and one of the Theron Guards to get his attention. And, of course, he had a Torque Bow. "When was that?"

Cole shook his head but would say anymore. Baird stuck his head out as he watched Quinn crouch behind a crate with her Lancer near her chest. She wasn't firing at them she was just – crouching there looking at the ground. "What the hell, is she not going to fight? Let me guess, she's finally pissed herself from fear?"

"Not even close."

Quinn finally stood up from her crouching position and looked at the mass of Locust in front of her. They didn't notice her at first and Baird waited for her to rush in the middle of them and most likely kill herself. But no, instead she brought her hand slowly to her mouth and whistled so loud that it could be heard over the commotion. For a second everything became still. All of the Locust turned around and looked at her. She began to grin her cocky grin and she yelled, "All of you stupid grubby ass bitched are going down! You know why? Because Quinn is in your house now, that's why. All of your asses are going down, way, way down! You're going to wish that you didn't mess with me because you pissed of the wrong home girl!" Quinn had two grenades in her hands and she threw them in the middle of them. Of course the dame Theron Guards ducked out of the way and she only took out a couple of drones but it was worth it. She got all of their attention and they are now going after her and not giving any attention to the base.

"Now that's what I'm talking about baby, your go girl. WHOOO." Cole yelled and ran forward to aid her in the fight she brewed by herself.

Baird shook his head. "She's crazy, all women are crazy bitches." He began to smile.

Quinn began to move forward shooting at everything that moved. Each step she took the Locust took two steps back. The boomers are dead from Quinn's and Cole's fire. The Reavers Quinn took out with her long shot using up all the ammo for that gun. Once they were gone was when she began to move forward. All that was left are Theron Guards. They are smarter than the average drone and they actually ducked when they are being attacked. There are three left. Quinn ran forward with her Lancer. The closest one to her didn't expect her because he was reloading his Torque Bow. She began to chainsaw him from behind, guts flying everywhere. The other two began to run backwards. They aimed at her and she ducked when she noticed them pull the trigger, the arrows whizzing over her and barely missing Cole who was following right behind her. She went up to the second one and used her chainsaw on him too. When he fell she grabbed her boltov pistol and began to shoot at the other Theron Guard who tried to aim at her but couldn't because of the fire she was raining on him. After one fatal blow to the head, he fell forward already dead before he hit the ground.

Quinn's breath was labored as she looked down at the Theron guard she completely shredded, her lancer hanging loosely at her side.

"Holy Shit Quinn, that was the SHIT!" Cole came from behind and picked her up and hugged her. Once he let her go Quinn turned around with her usual cocky grin on her face.

"Everything I do is the shit," her arms are splayed out as she walked backwards then she quickly turned around and began to scratch her head. "Even though this time I think I may have over done it."

Baird, Marcus, Dom, and Dale walked up from behind. Dom was the first to speak, "I will have to say that you impress me more as the minutes pass."

Quinn turned back around with her cocky smile, "That's what I always aim for."

"It was stupid of you and out of order," Marcus said as he walked up to her. "I don't know how someone like you became the leader of Gamma squad."

"Jealous? This is exactly why I'm the leader," she suddenly became serious as she continued to speak. "Everything I do may be cocky but I'm a fucking genius. I can calculate five to ten steps ahead of the enemy. I know when and where to attack to get the best kills and how to separate them so they are not humping and protecting each other's back. I'm one of the best strategists around and you better be damn lucky to have someone like me on your team. I'm cocky because I know I will always win."

Marcus almost said, 'Then why couldn't you protect your squad? Why didn't you calculate that?' But he didn't dare say it. He could see it in her eyes. Even through her cockiness he could see her punishing herself for it. No one else could see it except him. Those exact same eyes are what he sees in Dom's, those same grieving eyes.

Marcus shook his head, "As long as you are in my squad you are going to take orders from me for now on. You don't fire unless I say so, you don't run with your head cut off unless I say so, you don't…"

"Eat, sleep, or piss unless he says so," Baird said sarcastically out loud without realizing it until everyone looked at him. He shrugged his shoulders.

The gates of the settlement opened up and two men walked out hesitantly to meet them. They looked around as they walked up. Marcus was the first to great them. "There are no more Locust if that's what you are looking for. My squad took care of them."

One of the men who was in his mid years began to smile, "Thank God, we've been holding them off for three hours straight. We didn't think we would make it. Please, come in. We have plenty of supplies for you and some people who are willing to trade."

"Do you know why the Locust are this far North?" Marcus asked.

He shook his head, "We haven't seen Locust out here for over two years. We thought we were safe out here, but I guess we were wrong."

Marcus nodded and they all followed the two men inside. They closed the gates behind them. There are people cuddle in corners of the settlement, each one had a gun in their hands. They watched as Delta squad walked by, some thanking them for the help, others just stared.

"Ugh, why are they all staring at me?' Quinn asked anyone who was around her as she began to feel uncomfortable.

"Maybe because you don't really see too many COG female soldiers these days, you're probably their first." Dale said as he walked closely with her.

"Yes," Quinn said to everyone who was looking at her. "I have boobies and a vagina, get use to it!"

Dale smiled as they kept on walking. Marcus turned around to talk to his squad, "Everyone spread out and gather supplies, and only trade items that we don't need." He glared at Baird with the last comment.

"What? I didn't think we needed those couplings. How did I know the break lines were going to break!" Baird tried to defend himself but failed miserably. He really wanted the old moldy chocolate the guy wanted to trade. He wasn't much of a chocolate person but he hadn't had it in so many years he almost forgot what it tasted like. He also had the worse diarrhea that night as well.

They all separated. Quinn and Dale walked over to a couple of men who are holding their own stands selling crap. Baird and Cole went off to other stands while Dom and Marcus continued to follow the two men asking about what type of vehicles they had fueled here.

"Look, I'm not trading with you, I mean, look at this shit," Baird said as he looked at old parts of a very, very old engine of a car. "They are completely rusted out, there's no way these can withstand more than a day on a Centaur."

"What are you talking about, just boil it in oil and it'll be brand new," the man tried to change Baird's mind but didn't realize how much of a tech Baird was.

"Look," Baird grabbed a gear and began to chip away at the metal, "See how easy this is coming off. This is rusted to the core, let me guess, you left this out here every day while Mother Nature took a shit on it?"

The man just shook his head but new it was useless to change his mind. Cole just laughed when he walked away. They stopped when they saw Quinn walked towards them, "Hey, look at what I traded!" She had an old Polaroid camera in her hand. "Still have three shots left."

"What did you trade that for?" Cole asked as he took the camera from her and began to examine it.

"A couple of condoms."

Cole laughed and almost dropped the camera. Baird was the one to speak, "Where did you get condoms from?"

"Found them when I was salvaging old parts in cities, there about ten years expired, but whatever." She took the camera from Cole and smiled sweetly at Baird.

"What?"She quickly walked over to his side and put her arm around his shoulder where she brought him to her own side. "What the hell?" He tried to pull away but she quickly put the camera in front of them and kissed him on the cheek when she clicked the button. The flash went off and Baird finally pushed her away rubbing his cheek. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

She winked at him, "That's your first kiss from a woman inn't it?" She grabbed the picture from the camera and began to fan it around.

Cole grabbed his knees and laughed even harder, "She-she got you good Baird."

"Whatever, I'm getting sick and tired of your…your…" he couldn't think of the word so he crossed his arms and leaned on one foot as he glared at her. "Just don't do that again if you know what's good for you." He said, but he didn't sound threatening as he usually does.

"You know you liked it."

* * *

><p><strong>(Sorry this took so long. I've been plotting this story out and I'm really excited where this story is going. Everything is going pretty well with future events. I'm also going to start writing next month a Mass Effect story. Hopefully I'll still have time to write chapters for this story. Whichever story gets the most attention I'll write the most chapters for. So review! Yes, I am very, very evil! Only review if you like though, please! Also, sorry about the short chapter, the next one will be longer.)<strong>

**(EDIT: 10/17 - IF I GET about let say 4-5 reviews by 10/18 or 10/19 then the next chapter will come out that day! Haven't been getting a lot of hits on this chapter and it's disappointing me. Oh well, I guess, I tried...)  
><strong>


	5. Chapter 5 Bacon and Friendship

_Dreaming Storms_

Chapter 5 Bacon and Friendship

"Hey! Look at what I got!" Quinn yelled at Baird and Cole who are still looking for spare parts for the long haul tomorrow. Quinn, on the other hand, took off with her Polaroid camera to do more of her own _searching. _And this is what she finds… Once the two men turned to look at her after looking at Gear breast plates that the people of this settlement somehow _salvaged_, she grinned her cocky grin that is now known only to her and said with the same tone as her grin, "I found bacon!"

"You've got to be kidding me," Baird didn't believe her. But to his own surprise, she had a plate full of bacon right in her own hands. "I hope you plan on sharing that." Baird crossed his arms and waited for her to reply.

Quinn stared at them, her smile slowly slipping away. She looked at them with wide eyes and an expression that was unreadable. She opened her mouth to say something, but then thought better of it and closed it and continued to stare at them, not blinking.

"Well?" Baird said impatiently. He began to tap his foot emphasizing his impatience.

Quinn opened her mouth and said rather quickly, "Okay," she turned around and began to walk away. "I'll be back in ten minutes."

"OH, no baby," Cole said walking after her. "You are definitely sharing some of that goodness with me!"

Baird began to walk hastily towards her with an expression that showed he means business. "I'm not going to ask you twice, hand over the bacon, half of it." Quinn shook her head and began to back up slowly as she looked around for a way out. "That's it, I'm done with you. You want to play it the hard way, that's fine with me. Just to let you know I always win when I play." He began to sprint after Quinn. She made a squeal noise, stuffed some bacon in her mouth, turned around and darted away from Baird.

"My bacon, I traded for it!" Her yell was muffled due to the bacon.

Cole also took chase, but not out of anger only for the fun of it, and also to make sure Baird doesn't kill Quinn. Quinn ran passed Marcus and Dom screaming like a twelve year old with Baird chasing after her with a rather serious face. Marcus shook his head and yelled with frustration, "What the hell are you two doing?"

Cole ran up to Marcus and stopped for a second to explain, "Quinn has bacon, and like a little idiot she taunted Baird with it." Cole began to laugh, "Oh baby, she has no idea what she got herself into. She really pissed of Baird this time."

Marcus shook his head once more and sneered, "Go tell them to knock it off or I'll make them both stay here when we leave tomorrow."

Cole nodded and began to jog towards them again. Dom watched Quinn as she ran away from Baird with a grin, not one out of cockiness but out of sheer joy. "You know, it doesn't hurt to have fun once in awhile."

Marcus shook his head again for the third time, "Not when we're at war." He looked at Quinn as she goofed around with Baird. He was starting to wonder if it was a mistake to bring her along.

Baird finally cornered Quinn between two buildings and with a rather large fence behind her. She turned towards him eyes wide. "Oh, crap."

Baird was slightly panting as he looked at her with a scowl, "Are you ready to give up the Bacon?"

"Um, how about this let me go in one piece and I'll give you one piece of bacon." Quinn tried to barter her way out but Baird shook his head. "Two pieces?"

"The way I'm looking at the situation is only one of us is going to eat that whole plate of bacon tonight." Baird took one step towards her.

Quinn took a step back only to feel her back hit the fence behind her. "Okay, two pieces of bacon and I'll let you snuggle me tonight?"

Baird laughed, "Sorry babe, I'm not interested." He began to walk over to her enjoying the power he had over her even if it was just a playful banter. He did have all attentions of taking that bacon away from Quinn. "If you didn't try to gloat about that damn bacon then yeah, I wouldn't have taken all of your bacon in the first place, only half."

Once Baird was only a couple of steps away Quinn began to panic realizing how serious he was. "Okay, you can take half and I'll sleep with you tonight! I'll do whatever you want me to do." Then she thought about it and shook her head, "Except no backdoor penetration. I don't roll that way." Baird stopped and glared at her with disgust. "Unless, of course, you are gay then I can probably find a nice young male here that is more than willing to sleep with you tonight." She teased.

"You are unbelievable!" Baird said his arms once again flying in the air with exasperation. Something Quinn is getting use to seeing.

Cole began to laugh from behind as he fell to his knees with tears coming to his eyes. "Oh man, baby girl that was too funny." He laughed more and wiped the tears out of his eyes. Quinn began to smile her smile, "What? I seriously think Baird might be gay. I'm practically throwing myself at him and he keeps on denying me every time."

"Okay, first off," Baird said pointing at Quinn. "Stop talking like I'm not here, and in actuality, I've slept with girls before I just prefer not to sleep with someone such as yourself. And second," he turned around and pointed at Cole. "That was not funny, at all."

"Um, yeah it was. The look on your face was priceless." Cole finally began to stand up but he still was wiping tears out of his eyes.

Baird shook his head. Quinn began to walk up to him with the plate of bacon in her hands. "To tell you the truth Baird, you amuse me. Don't take anything I say seriously." Once she was in front of him she winked and handed the plate of bacon to him. "I never intended to keep this to myself. I'm not that selfish, and besides, I have a whole other plate hidding with Dale." Quinn laughed and began to walk away. But before doing so she turned back around towards Baird, "The offer still stands though." She laughed and jogged off.

Baird looked down at the plate in his hands. He reached for a piece and put the whole slice in his mouth. "Oh wow," he said while chewing it. "It's still warm and so, so good."

Cole walked over and took a slice for himself. "Oh baby, my taste buds are swimming." He turned around and watched Quinn disappear behind the building. "She's something else, isn't she?"

"She's a pain in my ass and that's all."

Cole smiled and let out a small laugh. "Yeah, but you have to admit that even though she's immature she makes you forget." Cole smile began to fade as he thought about the war.

"Forget what exactly, about the war? No, I think about it all the time, not matter what the situation I find myself in."

Cole shook his head, "She gets you off your ass doesn't she? I saw you laugh; I've known you for far too long to know when you are lying."

Baird didn't respond at first, he ate more bacon enjoying the crispy taste. He thought about Quinn, how immature she was. But Cole was right, she was amusing even to him. Baird looked down at the plate of bacon and cracked a smile. It's been far too long since he's been amused such as this. He gave credit to Quinn on that. "She isn't that bad. Immature yes, but she's alright."

Cole laughed, "Knew you would warm up to her. Everyone eventually does."

"Yeah, yeah whatever, what I don't understand is why she always acting this way. You can't be that immature all the time. And what do we really know about her anyways, yeah she's smart, but what about her past? How do we know she's not some crazed murderer and I'm her next victim? I dunno, I just get this weird vibe from her."

Cole hesitated, he was serious once more as he thought about the first time he meet Quinn. A small smile cracked on his lips then disappeared just as quickly. "It doesn't really make sense if you don't know her past. What she – what she had to endure."

Baird walked over to the wall and slid down it to sit down. One leg was propped up and the other was flat with the plate lying on it. "I'm listening, tell me about her past."

"If you ask her she'll tell you, it's not my place."

"Yeah, right I'm not going to be willing to talk to her."

"I'm being serious man. She won't joke around about her past. It would make her… not human."

Baird sneered but didn't say anything else. Yeah, okay, he was interested in her past, who wouldn't be? He just wanted to know why the hell she acted the way she did. She couldn't be coping all the time. There had to be another reason, and after what Cole just told him it only confirmed his suspicions. There was a reason, and he was going to find out. He didn't mind asking Quinn about her past, he didn't mind in the least bit.

* * *

><p>Delta squad was offered blankets and a room to stay in. Three other people occupied the room but are willing to move to another for the night. They are grateful still for Delta Squad saving them, sacrificing onc night of comfort wasn't a big deal for them.<p>

Dom looked at the floor they had to sleep on. It was covered in dirt and leaves. He placed two comforter blankets on the ground and folded them in half for some cushion. Once he lay down he let out a sigh, "This feels great, beats sleeping outside."

"Don't get use to it Dom, tomorrow night we'll be outside again." Marcus said while setting up his bed doing the exact same thing Dom did.

"Do you think they'll let us keep these blankets, they seemed well over stocked with them?"

"Don't get your hopes up. When winter comes they'll be wanting these blankets."

Dom shrugged his shoulders and began to take off his breast plate.

Baird leaned against the wall as he waited for Quinn to come to bed. Cole made his way in with a grin and an armful of blankets. There are a lot of cougar fans in the small settlement. Baird smiled and shook his head as he watched Cole walk in and Dom asking him where he got all of the blankets, jealously clear in his voice. Quinn was the last to show up; she had three blankets in her hands. She didn't pay any attention to Baird until he stepped in front of her. "We need to talk," he said with a serious tone while crossing his arms.

"Taking me up on my offer?" She looked inside to see Dale setting up his own bed and everyone else settling in for the night. "Do you want them to watch or…"

"No!" Baird said with disgust. "Hell no, I just want to talk and that's it."

Quinn shrugged, "Your loss." She sat her blankets in the corner of the room and walked back outside with Baird. "What's up?"

Baird crossed his arms. He was a very blunt man so he was going to be straightforward, not work up to it like most people. "I want to know about your past, before you joined the COG's."

Quinn's smile didn't falter, "And why do you want to know that?"

"Personally, I don't trust you at all…"

Quinn cut him off, "And in order for you to trust me you want me to pour my heart and soul out to you? Tell you all of my dirty little secrets." When Baird didn't say anything she continued, "Sure, whatever, jut not here." She looked around them to see if they can find a spot for them to talk. "Over there," she said pointing toward an empty fire pit. She began to walk over to it and Baird followed closely. She sat down at a log and Baird sat across from her with the fire pit between them. He crossed his arms with his back erect when he studied Quinn closely. She couldn't help but smile. It seems that he never has any other posture when he's around her.

"So you don't trust me?" She asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

"No, I don't."

She acted offended as she looked at him pouting. "That hurts my feelings."

"Okay, enough stalling, talk."

Quinn smiled her smile, "Very straightforward aren't we?"

"Look, if you are not going to talk I'll be forced to talk to Marcus about leaving you behind. I think he would agree with me, after today's fight I think he's already thinking about it." Baird began to stand up but Quinn stopped him.

"Wait, okay," she said standing up and putting both arms up like she was surrendering. "I'll play your game." Her smile began to grow weaker until it was only a twitch on her left lip. "How do you know I won't lie?"

Baird sat back down and crossed his arms, "I think I'll be able to tell."

Quinn lightly smiled, "Maybe I should be asking you the same question."

"I'm pretty sure I asked you first."

"How about this," she straddled the log beneath her and laid back onto it crossing her right leg over her left where she began to swing it up and down. "You tell me your story then I'll tell you mine."

Baird smiled, "Fine I'll play _your_ game but, unfortunately, it's going to be the other way around."

"That's very un-gentlemen like."

"If you haven't noticed," Baird said with his own cocky smile. "I don't really give a damn."

"Fine, fine, I'll go first, I guess." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, hesitated, and then said, "Are you sure?"

Baird sighed, "Will you just get on with it, please?"

Quinn turned her head to look at him with a playful smile, "Now was that so hard?"

Baird shook his head. He placed his elbow on his knee and rubbed his hand against his face. "What?"

"To say please? You should be nicer, people may like you more." Baird glared at her and she shrugged her shoulders, "Just saying." She looked back up at the starless sky. She watched the clouds slowly pass by as she thought. Her eyes began to squint and twitch as she thought more and more about her past. She sat back up still straddling the log. Her hands clasped together as she thought more and more. Her face began to distort with anger, something Baird never seen her exert before. She let out a long breath that Baird didn't realize she was holding. Her thumbs began to twitch against each other.

Baird thought it was best for him to start the conversation, to start off slow. "Where were you born?"

She looked over at him but only at his feet, the anger present on her face. "I was born in a small settlement like this one not too far away from Jacinto."

When she didn't say anything more he continued, "Did you have a mother, father, siblings?"

Quinn's eyes grew wide. She looked down at her hands, the fingers extended from each other shaking viciously. "My mother," she said with strain. She closed her eyes and shook her head. "She died when I was fifteen. My father, he was a drunk, didn't give a damn about us. There were… There were eight of us." She took another deep breath. She turned her body towards Baird and slowly looked up at him. Her eyebrow furrowed as she glared.

She wasn't glaring at Baird even though she was looking straight at him. Her eyes are glazed over as she looked straight through him in an abyss of self hatred.

"I was the oldest," she continued. "Dale was the second oldest but he was only twelve. Two twins who were eleven, ten, nine, eight and the youngest who was five. We had a hard time finding food. Our town rationed food out to each family. After awhile everyone felt bad for us and gave us extra food, but after a year they thought it was best that my family was given the same amount of food as everyone else." She grabbed her stomach as she hesitated to speak further. "I went many night without eating, almost about killed myself before E-Day. Many nights I had to go steal food from other families I knew received more than they needed. Some night I succeeded, other nights I was almost beaten to death."

Baird nodded his head as he listened intently. He watched as she twitched viciously her thumbs growing raw from rubbing together. "It was weird that our settlement was one of the ones to get attacked by the Locust on E-Day. I think they must have attacked Jacinto and moved on to the next bigger town and we were just in their way. That night," she hesitated again, her thoughts running off on their own as she thought about the events of that night. Baird waited patiently, not daring to speak. "That night… I was trying to get more rations for my family. My house was the first to get hit from the attack. There were so many of them," her voice began to strain again and tears threatened to escape her eyes. "To many, I had a hard time making it back to my house. But when I arrived, only Dale and Stefan, he was six when it happened, the youngest. They were hiding behind our well, I could see blood, the door was open, and they were all dead." Then her voice began to grow angry as she balled her hands into fists. Her words began to come out faster, as her voice began to grow with her anger. "I ran with just a damn knife in my hand. I took down the first grunt, slit its throat. But the next one punched me in the face and I fell to my knees instantly. I was so weak back then and so, so hungry. Stefan, he squealed when he saw me fall and they found them. They were… Damn it, they were going to _process _us, put us in the mines. I didn't know that then though, I didn't understand what was happening. They assessed Dale and I, we were old enough to work in the mines but Stefan, he was too young. They killed him in front of me when they took Dale off." She unclenched her fists to look down and see that they are bleeding. The small burst of pain brought her back to reality. She looked back up at Dale and she… smiled.

"How did you get out of the situation?" Baird couldn't help but ask.

"I killed them all."

Baird gave her a weird look, "How?"

"I remember taking one of their guns. I shot the ones around me in the head. All of them were drones so it was a one hit kill. Then after that… it was all a haze. When I came too I was covered in grunt blood with my brother sitting near the well staring at me. After that, I joined the army, then the COGS. Met Cole, yada, yada, yada, you get the gist of it."

Baird just stared as he thought about what he just heard. Then he became serious, his tone matching his posture, "I still don't understand."

"What don't you understand?"

"Why do you act the way you do."

"How do I act? This is the way I act, I don't understand…"

Baird shook his head his eyes grew soft as he looked at her, "How can you act with humor in everything you do. I just don't understand." He began to think about Dom, how torn he was when he killed his wife. Quinn, she's different.

Quinn smiled softly as she looked at him, "It's my way of coping."

Baird continued to stare at her then he closed his eyes and stood up. He stretched his legs and arms and began to yawn. "You have a strange way of coping, I'll tell you that much."

Quinn lightly laughed, "I've been told that many times."

Baird began to scratch his head as he shifted from one foot to the other, "Um, uh, sorry."

Quinn cocked her eyebrow, "For what?"

"For being such an asshole."

Quinn laughed, "Am I hearing you correctly? Baird is actually saying he's sorry?" she laughed some more and Baird began to scuff, regretting what he just said. "Forget it. You don't have to say you're sorry. Besides, I like the asshole Baird. It amuses me."

He smiled and shook his head as he did so. He yawned again and began to scratch his eyes, "I don't know about you but I'm pretty much exhausted." He walked around the fire pit and pass Quinn. He turned around to look at her, "Are you coming?"

Quinn stood up and turned to look at him, "Is that an invitation for me to join you in bed?"

Baird smiled but didn't say anything, he turned back around and began to walk back to the room for the night. Quinn followed.

* * *

><p><strong>(Sorry for the late update. I'm gonna try and make an update once a week. I've been busy with making my other story for mass effect. I'm excited about that one. It has a lot more detail then this one, explains more about the person's feelings etc. I'll try and update next Monday… unless this story gets like four reviews, then I have to either update that day or the next, hehe. I know I'm evil. REVIEW! I'm also going to be making a one-shot story. It's about Quinn's past, E-Day, and how she met Cole. Only going to be one chapter, but I'm going to make it separate from this story. Tell me what you think!)<strong>


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